X-Com Into Darkness
by deathwing17
Summary: After an information gathering mission in China, The leaders of X-Com learn that something strange is going on in Japan. They send a team in to investigate only for them to find something more disturbing than they originally feared.
1. A New Development

X-Com: Into the Darkness

Chapter 1

A New Development

A/N: a few things that I should mention right now: this starts out fairly early in X-Com Enemy Within so there aren't any energy weapons on the side of the humans, the world doesn't know about the existence of the alien invaders, yet.

Also I've only read to the part where Hatsuna joins the group in the manga, so you should expect things to become AU very, very quickly in regards to most of the plot and will more than likely contradict what has been set up in Brynhildr's canon. This is especially emphasized in regards to the motivations of the organization that created the lab, the witches and the Drassil creatures. And finally as the manga hasn't really stated where in Japan the story takes place I'm going to assume that it's somewhere in Kyoto judging by how the town resembles that particular city in Japan.

One final note, Ryouta and the others aren't going to show up until the next chapter.

* * *

- China, Hong Kong, Slums-

* * *

The long, busy day had come already and gone for the people living in the bustling city of Hong Kong and now it was just past midnight. Some of the people living in this particular section of the city were in their beds trying to get some sleep, all the while hoping that their small dwellings wouldn't get broken into while they slept.

Like many cities there were many poor neighborhoods where people lived in poverty and in this particular neighborhood crime was rampant. There were many small gangs that operated in the city limits but they were just small fries when compared to some of the larger criminal syndicates such as the Triads whose influence in the city ran very deep. One thing for sure was that no one that wasn't part of the criminal underworld went out at this time of night without some form of protection.

In a back alley near the edge of the slums was a man with closely cropped white hair and several scars on the right side of his face. He wore a rather expensive looking business suit and was holding a large briefcase in his left hand put a cigarette into his mouth before lighting it with his right. This man's name was Shaojie Zhang, a member of the Triad crime syndicate. Zhang was a minor lieutenant in this particular branch of the Triads and had always been more focused on his own survival rather than making his way up the ranks.

It was this policy that led him here with the briefcase that contained a number of, disturbing items that had been smuggled out of Japan. He didn't know who brought it here or even how it was smuggled out of that country but when Zhang saw what was inside he knew that his boss was a fool, trying to sell something like _this_ to the highest bidder was completely insane.

No it would be much safer in the hands who actually knew how to handle something like the things in the briefcase. Because of this he used his contacts in the Chinese government to get in touch with a black ops organization that dealt with things such as this. Apparently his contacts referred to it only as X-Com. It had near unlimited funding and had the support of some of the most powerful nations across the planet, including that of his homeland. From what he'd been able to gather, X-Com dealt with strange things like what was within the Zhang's briefcase.

A small, almost unnoticeable tap interrupted the silence of the back alley causing Zhang to reflexively draw his P99 pistol from its hiding place in his suit as he turned to face the direction of where the noise was coming from. There he saw a group of six soldiers all in completely black fatigues and their faces were completely obscured from view due to the helmets they wore. They wielded several unique looking rifles, shotguns and a light machine gun.

Zhang had never seen any of these models before in his life and quickly deduced that they were probably custom built. Zhang smiled as he'd been told that his contacts would be wearing outfits that were similar to that "So you must be my contacts," he stated more than he asked. "After all only those who wouldn't fear reprisal would make an appearance like this." The leading soldier let out a low humorless chuckle.

"You got that right, now do you have the package?" he asked. Zhang kept his smile on as he raised the briefcase he had been carrying "Of course I do, and I hope that you remember my price for bringing it to you."

Zhang's price hadn't been what any of X-Com's leaders had been expecting. Rather than asking for a large sum of money like many people of his kind of background would undoubtedly have done in his position, Zhang only requested that he be evacuated from the country and be allowed to join X-Com as a soldier.

"We keep our word Mr. Zhang, now stay close and keep your head down as best you can, we've received Intel of possible hostiles in the area, and more than likely, they're probably after whatever's inside that case." Zhang then noticed something that was just a couple of meters behind the X-Com soldiers. The creature was skinny, hunched over, its head was rather large and bulbous for its diminutive size that contained a pair of almost glowing yellow eyes but there wasn't a mouth or even a nose.

It held in its hands a small green device that was glowing slightly that was obviously a weapon. Immediately Zhang raised his P99 and fired off three rounds at the creature. The three rounds struck the creature in its center mass making it fall down to the ground in a heap. It made a noise that was a combination of an avian like chirp and a squealing noise all at once. Sparks covered the weapon that the alien was holding for a few moments before it fell to pieces.

The other X-Com operatives turned around and noticed the creature, a Sectoid on the ground with three bullet holes in its chest that were pouring out green blood onto the ground. Zhang spared the dead alien a glance for a moment before looking at his gun "Not all that different from killing a man," he mused nonchalantly as he gestured for his new colleagues to lead the way to the extraction point.

The X-Com operatives advanced slowly and cautiously through back alleyways as they didn't want to risk exposing themselves to the enemy that was no doubt out there somewhere waiting for them. They also made a note to keep a fair distance from one another whenever possible due to the likelihood of Thin Men showing up in the area as they had been making more frequent appearances where covert action was required.

Thin Men were perhaps the most human-like alien that X-Com had fought thus far, or at least they were at first glance. They had similar skin tones, body types and facial features that humans had, hell they even wore business suits and had hair that was kept neatly combed and cropped as though they were on their way to a business meeting. However if one was to take a closer look then they would see several glaring differences.

One was their unnatural height and elongated and incredibly thin bodies, then there was an area around their neck and wrists where the skin was a disturbingly green color. The last feature however were the eyes which had many similarities to that of Earth based reptiles so they wore shaded spectacles to keep up the false front of being human.

They were also walking chemical weapons. Each Thin Man was capable of spitting a concentrated venom that turned into an aerosol upon hitting a solid surface. This cloud could cover an area up to several meters in diameter and last up to several minutes. The poison itself was even capable of killing a person in ten to fifteen minutes if they weren't given proper medical aid.

And sure enough a trio of Thin Men appeared from just beyond the alleyway, each one with a plasma weapon in hand. Immediately the X-Com soldiers dove for cover and started to open fire on the new targets. Given how ridiculously agile the Thin Men were, all but one managed to emerge from the gunfire relatively unscathed. The last one though took a burst in its right thigh as it tried to dive behind a dumpster, causing it to fall face first into the ground. It attempted to raise its small scale plasma rifle and fire it at the soldiers but its neck was soon riddled with bullets and shotgun pellets.

It died instantly from the damage it took and the instant it died fumes rapidly poured forth from its wounds and soon a large noxious green cloud soon formed in front of the X-Com operatives. As soon as the cloud started forming the X-Com operatives started laying down a suppressing fire with their assault rifles and light machine gun. Even though the group was laying down suppressing fire on the Thin Men they still blind fired at the human soldiers with their plasma weapons in an attempt to take some of the heat off but they didn't succeed at hitting anything.

The lead operative pulled what looked like a frag grenade from his belt and yelled "Fire in the hole!" before tossing the grenade out at the green cloud where the other two Thin Men were lurking inside. Two seconds later there was a loud boom and much of the cover near area that the frag grenade had been thrown into was destroyed and a pair of corpses were blown a few feet upwards before they fell back down and released more toxins into the air.

This wasn't good, they were in a cramped alleyway without any decent cover or room to maneuver and couldn't take the same route back to their transport thanks to the toxic gas being given off by the Thin Men. Under normal circumstances they would just wait the couple of minutes for the gasses to evaporate but this wasn't the team wasn't equipped for a prolonged engagement with the enemy. Besides the area they were in was a bottleneck, which wasn't a very good place to be if there were any more Thin Men around.

The lead operative reached for the side of his helmet and said "Checkmate, this is Lieutenant Michael Richter, Echo One actual, our route back to the Skyranger has been cut off by toxins emitted by Thin Men, and our GPS is malfunctioning, we cannot wait for the toxins to dissipate, please advise on alternate route."

"Sorry Echo-One actual there's a problem with the Satellite, we'll try and do what we can but right now we aren't getting all that much, we will update once the bug has been fixed out." The voice on the other end of the line was the leader of X-Com, Commander McNeil (aka: Checkmate) a veteran Special Forces officer that was brought in to lead X-Com shortly after its inception. Richter tried to explain that they couldn't just wait around that long for them to get info on their new route but they said that it was going to take a while to get the satellite monitors back up and running again. Apparently some kind of software problem that was interfering with their equipment.

Lieutenant Richter muttered a few obscene phrases while Zhang quietly made his way over to Richter and said "Lieutenant I have intimate knowledge on the surrounding area and I should be able to lead you back to your craft if you can tell me exactly where it is."

Realizing that they didn't have much time Richter said "It's in a construction yard just roughly thirty meters south from where we are now."

Zhang knew exactly where Richter was referring to. The construction site had once been an old factory but it was torn down after a fire destroyed much of it. They were supposed to be building a new housing complex but construction had been stalled for quite some time by funding issues and the amount of crime in the area. "I know exactly where you are talking about, there's an alternate route to the construction site, this way," he said while pointing down a different direction.

Richter looked at one of the other soldiers one who was slightly shorter than the others but wore the same helmet as the rest of them, and said "Squaddie Jackson, you're on point with Zhang, keep him alive," Jackson gave a nod and moved up, shotgun at the ready.

The two moved slowly down the back alley, silently hoping that there weren't any hostiles waiting for them. Silence was once again abound in the immediate area only disturbed by the relatively quiet footfalls of the X-Com operatives and the former Triad officer. Eventually they were finally out of the alleyway and were in a nearby parking lot. The group used the park cars for cover as they continued to advance towards another alleyway that was much shorter than the last one and only went for a couple of meters.

As they continued to advance towards their extraction point, one of the other X-Com operatives, a Russian by the name of Dmitri Reznov heard the familiar pitter patter of tiny feet on the pavement. He raised his assault rifle in the direction of the noise and saw a group of four Sectoids crawling around by a pair of trashcans "Contact!" he yelled to his squad as he opened fire with his assault rifle on full auto.

The Sectoids scurried out of the way and dove behind cover but not before one of their number was killed by a stray bullet when it struck the side of its head and went out the other side with an exit wound roughly the same size as a toddler's fist. The other X-Com operatives dove under cover as the Sectoids returned fire, eager to avenge their fallen brother in arms.

One of the X-Com operatives, a squaddie by the name of Philippe Weir thought he had a clear shot at one of the diminutive aliens that was hiding behind a car. Against his better judgment Philippe stood up out of cover to get a better shot but before he could pull the trigger on his weapon, one of the three remaining Sectoids fired several plasma blasts from its wrist mounted weapon. The first shot went wide but the second struck Weir in the side of his right shoulder, causing him to fire off a burst at the pavement. The third shot however hit his head, killing him instantly.

"Man down! Man down!" yelled the only female operative in the team by the name of Mei Akiyama, who was currently taking cover behind a nearby car. She raised her weapon and peaked up at the Sectoid before firing off a blast from her Shotgun. The Sectoid's head exploded like a melon sending blood, brains and bone bursting outwards in all directions. "Tango down!" she yelled.

One of the other operatives, a rather bulky looking fellow that was carrying an LMG (Light Machine Gun) started riddling up the car the remaining Sectoids were behind. Each round punched straight through the vehicle's thin hull and out the other side, eventually it blew a hole in the engine and a thick black smoke start to come from the engine compartment. Within moments that smoke turned into fire and everyone, even the Sectoids knew what was going to come next.

The diminutive alien invaders decided to trade their soon to be exploding cover for something else. However they weren't exactly quick enough completely escape the explosion. However neither Sectoid was fast enough to get out of range before the car exploded and as a result, both were caught in the explosion. The one that was closest to the explosion was sent flying a few feet before coming to rest on top of the other alien, its right arm and left leg were both bent at unnatural angles and its body was covered in burns and pieces of the car.

The creature underneath it however was still alive and only looked as if it had sustained relatively minor injuries. Jackson walked over to the struggling creature and pulled out his pistol as well as a strange looking box shaped object with a pistol grip on the back of it "Kill or capture sir?" he asked. Richter looked at his subordinate "Capture, we may be able to gather something useful about what the hell it is these things want from our friend over here," said Richter while gesturing over to Zhang who was only a few feet away from them.

Jackson nodded and aimed the device right at creature "Got it lieutenant. Sweet dreams you ugly little bastard," he muttered before pulling the device's trigger. A mass of electrical charges went from the device and straight into the creature's body, more than enough to render the thing completely unconscious.

After the last alien fell, Richter turned to look back at the other four remaining members of his squad "Jackson you carry the prisoner, Mei you grab Weir's body, Reznov you and Carver take point with Zhang. Now let's move!" Reznov and Carver, moved up a as they were instructed and kept themselves in front of Zhang given how their body armor would keep them relatively safer. Zhang led them past a couple more alleyways before they finally found themselves literally right across the street from the old construction site.

Despite being in the home stretch, the group continued to make their way carefully towards the transport. They all knew that if there were any more aliens in the area waiting to ambush them, then now would end up being their last chance to try and prevent them from escaping.

Echo squad's leader activated his communicator and called up the Commander again "Sir this is Echo one actual to Checkmate, do we have eyes on?" he asked. The reply from command was almost immediate, "Affirmative Echo One Actual we do have eyes on. According to satellite scans of the area there doesn't appear to be any hostiles in the streets but we cannot confirm if there are any that are inside the structures, so proceed with caution."

Richter sighed. Of course it would be too much to ask to know for sure if the hostiles they had just killed were the last of them. Well at least they knew that they weren't going to get gunned down by plasma weapons while they crossed the empty street so that was something of a plus. Richter signaled the team to get ready to move across the large street.

The team moved in a circular formation, keeping Zhang in the middle so that if they did get attacked before they reached the Skyranger the VIP would be less likely to end up injured or killed. The squad didn't hear or see anything as they moved down the street which either meant that they got the last of the aliens in the previous firefight, or they were being lulled into a false sense of security.

Even after they were finally on the other side of the street they still didn't stop until they were behind at least some form of cover. The cover that they found themselves using was little more than a large white van with a title written in Chinese on it that was probably the name of whatever construction company was working in the construction site. It didn't really matter though as the group was in a safer location than they were just a few seconds ago.

Richter then signaled for Reznov and Carver to move up and check to make sure that there wasn't anything waiting for them nearby. The two soldiers did as they were told and moved up to the entrance of the construction site. A few moments later Carver's voice came over the radio "You're clear to move up sir."

The unit did just that, they moved towards the Skyranger observing their surroundings for anything remotely out of the ordinary in the event that Carver and Reznov may have missed something. Much to everyone's relief though there wasn't anything waiting to commence some last minute ambush on the team. The group then started to board their transport.

After everyone finished boarding the aircraft started to lift up off of the makeshift landing zone and up into the skies above. From there it set a course for X-Com HQ, located deep in the Nevada Desert. As the transport started to exit Hong Kong airspace Richter and the rest of his men removed their helmets and Zhang was now able to get a look at what the squad looked like.

Richter was a man in his early thirties, he had short dark blond hair and brown eyes. Dmitri Reznov at least in his late twenties to mid-thirties he had closely cropped black hair and grey eyes as well as the look of a grizzled veteran. Mei Kurosawa was a woman of clear Japanese descent and had her mid-length black hair in a ponytail. Carver was a bulky fellow in his mid-thirties, he was African American and his most defining feature was his Mohawk fade hairstyle.

Abel Jackson however was the most noteworthy as he was clearly the youngest member of the team. The boy was probably in his late teens, he was rather slim, had piercing blue eyes and he had a regulation military styled crew cut. Zhang wondered why a kid would be in a Special Forces unit but then decided that it wasn't really any of his business, at the moment anyways, he'd probably just ask someone about that when he arrived at X-Com HQ.

Zhang was broken out of his thoughts when Richter looked over at the former Triad member and asked "You mind telling me what in the hell was inside that case and why it was so important that it cost one of my men?"

"I'm not sure what it is to be honest, or even most of the details how my boss managed to get his hands on it but I do know that whatever is inside isn't from around here. All I know for sure is that he managed to get it from an unknown contact in Japan and once he received it, he put it on a black market auction. Within days we started to get offers from a wide variety of bidders. There was one individual, I don't know who it was but he offered us roughly sixty two million Yuan* just to have a look at it at what's inside this case." (*roughly ten million dollars in US currency)

The other soldiers looked pretty surprised. Granted most of them didn't know how much the Chinese currency would be worth in their own native countries but they guessed that that was quite a bit. If someone was willing to pay that much just to go in and gawk at whatever they found then lord only knew what they were willing to pay for just to acquire it.

Naturally this made everyone want to know what was inside the case but they had orders to wait until doctor Vahlen the head researcher of X-Com had examined its contents thoroughly. Despite their curiosity regarding what was inside the briefcase, no one wanted to piss that woman off, as many had seen the rather messy results of the interrogation room when they brought in captured aliens in for interrogation.

The rest of the flight to X-Com HQ was almost completely silent aside from the noises being generated by the Skyranger's engines.

* * *

-Nevada Desert, X-Com HQ, Research Wing some time later-

* * *

Doctor Vahlen and her team were having a very difficult having a very difficult time holding in their excitement. Roughly twenty minutes ago, right before going to and debrief Zhang, Commander McNeil had personally informed her that not only had the Echo Squad retrieved Zhang and the package that he had in his possession but also there was a live capture of a still living alien. Vahlen already had half of the research team prepping the alien prisoner for the interrogation chamber while she and the rest of the group examined whatever alien artifact their new recruit had brought with him when he arrived.

Ordinarily doctor Vahlen would oversee almost all of the interrogations with the aliens personally but what had been retrieved by the team that retrieved Zhang was much more interesting at the moment. When the team opened up the briefcase they found something rather, unexpected. Originally they thought that they would be examining something more mechanical in nature but it turned out they were only half right about that.

Inside the briefcase were a number of items. The first of these were four glass cylinders, each of these cylinders was filled with a clear liquid and inside was a strange creature that was roughly the size of a small child's fist. They were all almost pitch black in color and were dotted with numerous eyes and mouths, each of the mouths were filled with tiny yet still sharp, needle like teeth.

One of the researchers even made an offhand comment regarding how they resembled one of the Shoggoth creatures that were featured in some of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. Although it was a very unprofessional assessment of the physical attributes of these creatures Vahlen had to admit that that they did strongly resemble some sort of a Lovecraftian monster.

The most disturbing thing about them however was not only were they not dead, but they showed complete and utter awareness of their surroundings. Their eyes followed the researchers that got too close to them and if Vahlen didn't know any better, she could swear that they were smiling at her with their numerous mouths. Three researchers were already in full hazard gear and were currently dissecting one of the entities to try and learn more about its anatomy.

The other items that came within in the briefcase was a box filled with another group of four canisters, only these were completely sealed off and there was no way to look inside without forcefully opening the devices. There were traces of some kind of dried up sludge on most parts of the canisters.

The top portion of the purely metal canisters had three buttons although no one knew what they were for and as such opted not to push any of them. After scans for anything radioactive, explosive or toxic inside of the containers came up negative, the researchers opened them and found they were completely empty.

However the scans also revealed something far more disturbing about the dried sludge on parts of the object. Apparently this sludge was primarily human genetic material that had been almost completely broken down. It was almost as if that the device was attached to a person at one time and that person just, _melted_. The mere implications of something like that happening were enough to make several of the researchers feel the need to vomit.

The containers themselves weren't created using Elerium or any of the alloys that the aliens used in their weapons or ships that much was for certain. Instead they were created using materials that were native to Earth, mainly stainless steel and a few other durable elements. Vahlen looked over at the creatures that were still gazing at her and the other researchers before a very sick and disturbing theory came through her mind.

The containers were more than large enough to contain the creatures that were brought in but also small enough to be implanted into a human without doing damage to the person's body. Vahlen also had to wonder how they managed to keep the nervous system from rejecting the container which would cause very serious health problems that could lead to death.

Perhaps they had managed to get their hands on Meld like X-Com had, this would certainly explain a lot. Meld was quite possibly one of the greatest research finds in genetic engineering after its discovery when one of their teams encountered it while scouting out a possible alien abduction site.

The substance itself was actually made up of billions if not trillions of mechanical and organic machines called nanites. The nanites could be used to combine different organic materials with one another or even fuse both machine and living tissue without rejection from the nervous system.

Some of the research data was already starting to be put into practical use. There was talk about using the substance to create new organs and making some of the original organs much more effective at their jobs than they were before. The cybernetics lab meanwhile was petitioning to make offers to military veterans who had lost their limbs in combat and giving them new robotic ones in exchange for their services at X-COM.

Shen was even going over schematics to create a Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit (MEC) for the new soldiers which would improve their combat effectiveness tenfold while in the field. Of course it was going to take a while for everything to get finished but it did look like a very interesting endeavor.

Vahlen realized that her thoughts were starting to drift further and further from the current subject of her research and started get back to focusing on the work that was important at the moment. The head researcher continued to have the team run scans on the canister to see if there was anything that they might have missed when another one of the other researchers came up to her and handed her a lab report. Apparently the dissection of one of the new creatures had just been completed.

The report contained some very interesting information regarding how the creature's functioned. The bodies had no bone structure and there were a few rudimentary organs that one would expect in a living being, the creatures did have blood although it was a clear oil like substance. There wasn't a bone structure in them, instead the creature used a strange muscle system to allow them to move around.

One detail however caught her attention though and it allowed her to realize what those other containers they had been scanning were being used for. Apparently because of the fact that it lacked a skeleton, the creature was able to, for lack of better terms, fold itself into very small shape. Once Vahlen finished reading that small part of the report everything about what they found started to piece together paint a very disturbing picture.

After a very sick theory entered her mind the head of X-Com's science division all but ran over to the nearest intercom and immediately contacted Central Officer Bradford. She proceeded to inform him that she had found something that the commander as well as the rest of X-Com's command staff needed to see the lab reports immediately and they probably weren't going to like what it was they found.

* * *

It took roughly twenty minutes for Doctor Shen, Central Officer Bradford, and Commander McNeil to make it down to Vahlen's lab and when they arrived they saw that Vahlen looked very, disturbed for lack of a better word. That made them somewhat nervous, as Vahlen was probably one of the most levelheaded people in X-Com.

Whenever Doctor she normally spoke in a calm and collected voice and although this time wasn't completely different, there were several undertones of horror and disgust. Soon they discovered why she had had such a reaction to the findings of the contents of the briefcase as she told them of her findings. They didn't want to believe that someone _human_ would be capable of doing something like this to another person but, unfortunately the evidence was right there in front of them, no matter how much they wanted to deny it happened.

The first one to find the words to speak was Branford "Do you honestly mean to tell us that someone _human_ decided to put those 'eldritch horrors' into a human body and whoever it was implanted in, _melted_?" he asked almost in complete disbelief and disgust at the mere thought of something like that happening. Vahlen let out the breath that she had no knowledge of holding in and continued. "While I scarcely want to believe it myself, the research team and I have already looked at the data and as much we wish that this wasn't the case, this is what we've been forced to conclude."

The first one to speak was doctor Shen who tried to focus less on the disturbing aspects of it and more on the reason why this was even being done "I don't understand the purpose behind these containers. Why would someone want to put these things into a human body? Would it not be much easier to put these things in more conventional packaging?" He asked.

Although he was still sickened by what he'd heard from Vahlen, Branford decided to offer his own input "I once read a report about how some members of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan had bombs surgically placed inside of their own bodies in order to get them past security checkpoints. Maybe the same thing applies here?"

Despite the fact that that theory make some sense there were a few problems with it that Vahlen quickly pointed out. The containers themselves were completely metal and would therefore be much easier to detect if put through most security systems so they would need to stay in the country they were currently. Besides it was unlikely that whoever created these things would want to take them over long distances as there would be more chances for the cargo to be detected.

More theories were tossed around the group for a small period of time before finally, McNeil decided to speak up, having been listening to the group talk and said "Right now all we have is nothing speculation, and the council wants to hear more than just that.

All we really know right now is that according to Zhang the Triads found these things in a briefcase in the Kyoto region of Japan after a gun battle with the Yakuza over a territory dispute he doesn't' know if the case was found on the Yakuza or on one of the civilians that were unlucky enough to get caught in the crossfire. So unless anyone has any better ideas I'm going to send in a team to that area to conduct a thorough investigation of the area to find out just what it is we're dealing with here."

The rest of the group did see the merit to that decision although most of the leads they had were shaky. The trail would probably have gone pretty cold by now but at the moment they had nothing else to go on.

"In four hours' time I'm sending in Echo Squad to chase down any possible leads for what we've found, with Gamma and Delta squads acting on standby support should the need arise. Doctor Vahlen, I'm going to need you to continue studying the creatures and the canisters, leave no stone unturned. I want to get to the bottom of this ASAP. Are we clear?" Everyone gave a "Yes sir" affirmative and returned to their duties while McNeil went to go inform the council's appointed representative of what had been found and knew that it was doubtful that he'd like what he would end up hearing.

To Be Continued.


	2. Arrival

X-Com into Darkness

Chapter 2

Arrival

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* * *

-Kyoto Japan, Local High School-

* * *

.

Over the past couple of weeks Ryouta's life had taken a turn for the downright bizarre. First he'd met a female transfer student that went by the name of Kuroha Neko. She heavily resembled a girl he once knew as Kuroneko almost ridiculously. The very moment that Ryouta saw the girl he practically had a heart attack as he thought he was seeing a ghost.

The resemblance Kuroha bore to his deceased childhood friend was quite frankly, very disturbing. This uncanny resemblance was what caused him to make a rather embarrassing scene then and there in the classroom, as he wanted to know for sure if she was in fact Kuroneko. In hindsight that wasn't one of his smartest moves as it ended up being very awkward for him. Things got even stranger from there as he was saved from a mudslide by Kuroha, who made the large rock that was supposed to crush him to death explode. From there Ryouta found out what Kuroha truly was.

She called herself a witch that was capable of using powers that she called 'magic'. To make things even more bizarre was that the magic originated from _aliens_ of all things. Apparently the scientists implanted a strange device on the back of her neck that allowed her to do these things called a 'Harnessed'.

Up until recently she and several other girls had been held in a lab for a number of years, having horrible experiments performed on them. Eventually she and several other witches managed to escape after the transport carrying them to be disposed of suffered an accident, but now she and the other escapees were being hunted down and eliminated by the people from the lab.

He'd also became acquainted with three other witches since then. The first was Kana Tachibana, a paralyzed girl whose only real means of communication was through a small speech unit that she could type words into in order to speak. She was able to determine when and how people were going to die with almost a hundred percent accuracy. Kana called this ability "forecasting."

The second was Kazumi Schlierenzauer a witch that was able to influence computers and similar machines with relative ease. And the final one so far was a ditzy girl by the name of Kotori Takatori who had the power of teleportation allowing her to switch places with someone instantaneously but could only use such a power once per day.

They'd managed to eliminate two witches that had been sent in to hunt down and kill the escapees from the lab but both times they only managed to stay alive was because of Kana who was able to tell when and how they were going to die. This ability allowed the group to plan around their opponents and something told Ryouta that if they didn't have Kana around, they probably all would have died several times over now.

Currently, Ryouta was sitting down in his classroom looking over some of the homework that was due today. As he went over he listened to many of his fellow classmates who were talking about things that they had done over the weekend or some news that had been occurring as of late. Eventually though there was something that perked Ryouta's interest.

"You heard about those lights hovering in the skies above Mt. Fuji lately right?" asked one of the students. "Yeah but you do know that they're being seen all over the world almost all the time now Y'know? I mean I even saw several hovering over my neighbor's house the other night, I thought it was a helicopter or something until I realized that it was completely quiet."

"I've actually noticed stuff like that too recently, and now that I really think about it I think that there were lights spotted over Tokyo, right before a bunch of people vanished without a trace." If the previous bits so the conversation didn't peak Ryouta's interest, that part _definitely_ did.

The blond haired student was about to join in the conversation and ask if there was anything else that people would consider to be odd going on as of late. Unfortunately he was unable to do so much as utter a word as the door that led into the classroom opened once again and Ryouta saw Kuroha walked in along with Kazumi. The instant that Ryouta saw the pink haired girl he prayed that she wouldn't try anything too, weird towards him.

As of late Kazumi had been making very flirtatious comments towards him, usually in front of the others that lived up at the observatory but after she hacked into the school's mainframe and made herself a transfer student, she'd been doing it there too. This caused him no end of trouble as whenever he tried to ignore her, she only made it worse by twisting everyday friendly gestures into romantic actions. Hell it was getting to the point where it could be considered borderline sexual harassment.

Thankfully though Kazumi didn't really do anything, risqué towards him in front of the class (for now at least). The only thing she really did was send a small, almost flirtatious smile his way along with a wink when she was sure that no one else was paying any attention. When Ryouta saw it he inwardly groaned and quickly got the impression that this school day would end up proving to be a very, very long and quite possible uncomfortable one.

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* * *

-Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto International Airport-

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As always the Kyoto International Airport was bustling with activity. People left and arrived at equal measure, all wanting to reach wherever their destination was. Many who arrived were greeted by their friends and family who'd been waiting patiently for them to return. Others like those who were coming here on business from their home country didn't have anyone to meet right outside of the plane's exit, immediately headed for the baggage area so they could claim their belongings.

Abel Jackson and Michael Richter had already finished exiting the plane. The two of them wore civilian garb in order to pass themselves off as a bunch of tourists visiting the country. Unlike most of their missions this one was to remain as covert as possible, which mean that there wasn't going to be an insertion via Skyranger. Instead each team member would arrive in the country through civilian channels. Once they were all in the country and were settled in at a nearby safe house they were to begin planning the next phase of the operation.

Once Abel was out of the plane he reflexively stretched his limbs as the seats in the plane weren't nearly as comfortable as the ones in the Skyranger. It was odd, Abel's father who was former Delta Force had always told him that military flights had the worst seats but Abel had to disagree having been on both forms of air travel.

It was obvious that civilian class flights had the worst possible seating options (in coach anyways), given how ridiculously uncomfortable they were. It was so bad that it got to the point where most of his back and even his legs became almost completely stiff. He did however feel quite a bit of relief that at least they finally off of that damned plane.

When Richter noticed Abel stretching out his back and limbs a little he gave a small chuckle "I take it you don't care much for flying coach?" he asked to which Abel just glared at his commanding officer after he finished his stretches. "Sir I think I'd rather be tied to the outside of a Skyranger mid-flight, than fly coach ever again."

That made the squad leader raise an eyebrow before he gave a small shake his head at Abel's hatred for regular seats. Sure the class they'd been flying for the past several hours wasn't the most comfortable in the world but it wasn't _that_ bad in his own personal opinion. Once Abel was finished stretching his limbs Richter said "C'mon we can't waste any more time," the two then headed out towards baggage claim to pick up their civilian clothes and after they were finished, they would then make for the parking garage for their vehicle.

During the briefing for the mission, Central Officer Branford informed the team that he'd had several specialized vehicles waiting for all of them once they finally arrived in Japan. All of them appeared to be normal vans but all their hulls were made with bullet proof materials that were so thick that it would take heavy weapons such as high explosives to do any real damage to them.

They would do very well against human weapons but the team doubted that it would be much good up against plasma weaponry given how it was capable of blasting through most earth made materials with relative ease. If they were really lucky they wouldn't need to test out the armor of their new transports against the energy weapons that the aliens were so fond of using. However it was unlikely that would end up being the case given the reports of lights in the sky in the area along the disappearances in Tokyo. Because of this there was a high likelihood that the team would end up encountering alien hostiles.

It took only a couple of minutes for the two X-Com operatives to get their luggage from baggage claim and they soon found themselves inside of the quite frankly, enormous parking garage. The parking garage was several stories tall and was ridiculously long and filled with countless different cars and trucks. A great many people were wandering about when the two soldiers walked through the doors leading into the garage.

There were families, businessmen and tourists trying to either get a rental car for the duration of their stay in Kyoto or trying to locate their own vehicles that they had left behind earlier when coming to the airport to pick up their loved ones. Soon Richter and Abel found themselves in a similar position to some of the other people in the massive parking garage.

They were all but completely lost despite the fact that they already had the key to the car as well as a note telling them where to find their transport. They were quiet for the most part during their search, as they focused mostly on trying to find the vehicle but eventually Abel muttered "Next time we're gonna have command get us a god damned valet parking."

That little comment made Richter let out a small chuckle. He had to admit that given the vast, near unlimited resources that X-Com had at its disposal one would have thought that they would have had the cash to prevent their soldiers from having to search for their ride in an enormous parking garage. Eventually though they found what they were looking for, a relatively decent sized plain white van. It looked like a slightly older model that was still in widespread use in the area and therefore would blend in very easily. Richter opened the door and got into the driver's seat while Abel got on the passenger side.

As the car made its way out of the parking garage Abel began to reflect about some of the things that had happened to him for the past couple of months. Originally he had no idea that he would end up being a soldier in a black ops organization, in fact he hadn't even thought about becoming a soldier in general. But things changed drastically after a small outing with his family.

Abel, his parents and little sister Helena were going out on a camping trip in one of the forests of Washington. It had started out just like any other camping trip, for a while anyways. The second night they were up there they saw lights in the sky, but they weren't stars as they moved very quickly and at a much greater speed than any aircraft. The lights made their way over to them and a bright light shined down on the camp site, then a strange cube like object was dropped down into the center of the camp, landing with a loud thud.

Abel's father got out his car keys and was about to make a run for the car so that they could get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. It probably didn't really matter either way considering that only five seconds later a strange green gas erupted from the sides of the object and engulfed the entire campsite. Then his vision went completely black.

From there Abel couldn't remember exactly what happened next, all he could remember were screams, strange alien machinery and several different alien creatures over him while he was restrained on an operating table. Then there were just flashes of him running as fast as he could down a strange looking hallway that was definitely _not_ made by human hands while, diminutive creatures no taller than three to four feet were right behind him. The next thing Abel knew was that he was on the floor, his head pounding and his vision blurred. Soon though his vision cleared and saw an enormous hole in the wall of the vessel and a forest outside of it.

Deciding it best not to question what had just happened to him, Abel walked outside of the craft and made his way into the woods. As he exited the craft though, he heard strange noises coming from back inside which encouraged him to move as quickly as he could away from the craft. Unfortunately all he could do was stagger out of the giant hole and try to get as far away as he possibly could from the creatures that abducted him. He didn't make it very far before one of the smaller aliens, (a survivor from the crash no doubt) started chasing after him.

It wasn't long before the diminutive creature jumped onto his back and although Abel could have thrown the creature off of him with relative ease his tired body prevented it and he found himself face first in the dirt with an alien on top of him. Despite his body's exhaustion Abel still continued to fight the creature as best he could and eventually managed to throw the creature off of him and into the dirt. Acting on pure instinct Abel grabbed a nearby rock that was bigger than his fist and slammed it into the small alien as hard as he could, and repeated the attack again and again until it finally stopped moving.

Abel then backed up against a nearby tree trunk with a bloodied rock in hand and just sat there, his strength all but gone and he all but passed out when several search lights shined on him. At first he thought it was more of those aliens but he was proven wrong within a few moments when one of them approached and he saw that it was a human in combat armor that Abel hadn't seen before in his life. They asked if he was alright but Abel was so out of it by that point that he couldn't respond to what they were saying.

He then found himself being carried into an aircraft and placed into a seat. The soldiers asked him questions but Abel had lost all strength at that point and simply passed out. Next thing he knew he was in a hospital bed in what was perhaps the most secretive military organization in the history of mankind being treated for light injuries and a small concussion. He was given numerous x-rays, CT scans and other non-invasive ways of inspecting the interior of the human body.

It wasn't until later that he learned that not only were the doctors checking for possible internal injuries but also any kind of foreign object that the aliens may have implanted into his body. Apparently Abel was the first abductee that they had found and they didn't want to run the risk of him being infected with some strange alien disease or implanted with some kind of alien technology. Fortunately for Abel though, Vahlen and her team found absolutely nothing strange inside his body.

Abel was back up on his feet within a couple of weeks and during that time he learned that he was at an underground facility in the Nevada desert. Shortly after he recovered from his concussion Abel asked the doctors if they found his family aboard the ship too, only for them to inform him that he was the only human that had been found aboard the ship.

This news practically crushed Abel as he'd been holding on to the hope that his parents and sibling had been located and were somewhere on this obvious military base trying to get in to see him. It was a foolish and quite frankly naively stupid hope but it was all he had at the time.

Shortly after his recovery he was approached by the leaders of X-Com who proceeded to ask him questions regarding what had happened throughout his captivity but he told them that he didn't remember much. The high ranking officers didn't really seem all that surprised by this, but they were taken aback by Abel's request to join X-Com as a recruit.

Initially Commander McNeil and Central Officer Branford rejected that request. However when they heard about Abel's military like training that he received by his father who was former Delta Force and how his family was abducted along with him, they gave very reluctant permission for him to join as a recruit.

Since then Abel had proven to be a more than competent operative, he followed all orders without any hesitation and was highly qualified with a shotgun and assault rifle although he preferred using the former. Most of his thoughts however revolved around finding his parents and little sister, hopefully, they would still be alive.

Abel was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the van turn in to the parking lot of a moderately sized warehouse. There weren't all that many windows that he could see, and those that he could were barred. The entrances were lined with steel shutters which would help keep unwanted guests out of the building unless they had military grade explosives. There were also several security cameras set up as an early warning system.

All in all the whole place would prove to be pretty useful against human enemies. If the invaders decided to pay the place a visit, it would be rather difficult to defend. The aliens had started to abduct humans in many of the world's cities after all and it was entirely possible that they'd eventually target this one.

World leaders had managed to cover up these abductions rather easily considering that a lot of electronic communications equipment, cell phones, laptops, cameras, even unshielded radio equipment were jammed during the abductions. After the abduction took place and the aliens were eliminated or no longer in that area, the local government would say that there was some kind of natural disaster and if that explanation didn't have enough evidence, a terrorist attack.

This worked for now but there were groups of people who were starting to suspect a few things. Thankfully most of these individuals were just a bunch of nutty conspiracy theorists that only a handful of idiots would listen to, but it was only a matter of time before someone managed to catch on. Lord only knew how people would react to hearing that they were being invaded by space aliens.

The van pulled up into an empty spot near one of the entrances and the two X-Com operatives saw a few vans similar to their own parked just a few spaces away. It seemed as though they were among the last to arrive at the safe house. Once the van was parked and the engine turned off, both operatives exited the vehicle and made their way towards the entrance of the old building where their comrades were probably waiting for them.

They made their way up the stairs to the front door and Richter pushed the 'talk' button on the intercom and said "It's Richter and Jackson could you open up?" he asked. There was a light chuckle on the other end of the line before Carver did an impersonation of an old man's voice "Before ye can enter this safe house ye must answer me these questions three, one what is-"

Richter rolled his eyes, he was in no mood for Carver's jokes at the moment and cut off his subordinate before he could finish speaking "Cut the crap Carver. Now I suggest you open this door before I decide to send you on latrine detail for the next couple of weeks." The two operatives then heard slight click while Carver muttered "Killjoy," over the other end of the intercom.

The two X-Com operative's then entered the building and saw that they were the last ones to arrive as the rest of the team was going about their own business as they waited for them to finally make to the safe-house. After being greeted by their comrades, Richter and Jackson set out to familiarize themselves with the layout of their temporary home.

The warehouse was divided into several different sections with prefab walls. There was a briefing room, an infirmary, a mess hall, a communications/intel room, an armory and a small barracks that held a number of cots along with civilian disguises. All in all it was a pretty decent set-up for the team while they remained in Kyoto during their investigation.

For the moment though the only thing they all wanted to do was rest, it had been several long flights for all of them and they would get started on their mission in the morning. Richter informed them that tomorrow morning they would begin pursuing leads, starting with the gunfight that happened right before the discovery of the briefcase that held the canisters. If that didn't work then the newest member of their team, Corporal Shaojie Zhang and Kurosawa would join him in speaking with some of Zhang's criminal contacts. Perhaps they had a way of getting their hands on the information they required.

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* * *

-Unknown Location-

* * *

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Many things were passing through the mind of Ichijiku Chisato. Most of it was frustration and annoyance of recent events. The frustration stemmed from the recent string of failures in recapturing or even killing the escaped witches. To make matters even worse, most of the lab's more powerful and loyal witches that were sent out were being defeated by the ones that Ichijiku considered to be inferior.

The annoyance however was more directed at his superiors in the Organization. They had started to grow very impatient with what they considered to be the apparent lack of progress on his part in regards to both the failed capture/kill attempts for the escapees and the research into the creation of the perfect alien. With the strange occurrences that had been happening all over the world, strange lights in the sky, large groups of people vanishing without a trace in major cities, amongst other things.

For the leaders of the Organization it was clear that the aliens that were responsible for the creation of the Drassil had returned to Earth. For what reason the Organization didn't know but they needed to find out as quickly as possible especially if their long term goal was to be brought into fruition. As a result they had been putting a lot of pressure on him to hurry and do whatever was necessary to finish the project as quickly and efficiently as possible. Ichijiku had informed the other scientists in the lab to accelerate the pace of experiments on the witches as well as the creatures contained within the harnessed.

At the current moment Ichijiku was sitting on a large, ornate looking chair that one could compare to a throne that royalty would sit upon. In front of him were five other men, most of their bodies were obscured by shadow. The environment around them was that of a flat hill atop a desolate wasteland. None of them really seemed to mind their bleak and dreary surroundings, and even if they did they didn't show it.

The first one to speak was a man sitting directly across from Ichijiku who appeared to be wearing a large pair of glasses, as he spoke it was clear that he was barely holding back his anger and frustration towards Ichijiku. It also appeared that judging from the body language of the others they weren't exactly very welcoming either.

"Chisato, I like to think that I'm normally a very tolerant person when it comes to those who make a small number of errors but there is a limit to how long I can put up with the sheer incompetence you seem to be performing as of late! First a great deal of B level and under magic users managed to escape while under your watch and to make matters you have yet to track them all down and either capture or destroy them. In your failed attempts at doing so, you've lose several more powerful witches during the attempts to hunt them down that could have been used in experiments.

The witch you sent in to guard the death suppressants at the Dresden Pharmaceutical plant failed in her mission and was ejected for her failure and now the escapees have more death suppressants at their disposal. You have lost several magic users in hunting down the escapees and the primary target, and now several Drassil and harnessed have been stolen from your laboratory. Though the researcher was recently gunned down in a gang shootout, the materials he had stolen was lost in the ensuing fight and now we have no idea where they are now.

These recent events could not have come at a worse possible time for us. I assume that you have been hearing the news lately, people vanishing without a trace, strange lights in the sky amongst other things? If not then I suggest you start, it's clear that the aliens that visited us in the past have returned and I very much doubt they like what they see. So I suggest that you turn this around very quickly Chisato, there are several people out there in the world that are just as brilliant as you perhaps even more so."

Despite the underlying threat Ichijiku Chisato wasn't intimidated in the slightest. He knew that his life would probably end up on the line when he accepted this position in the Organization. If he wasn't prepared to face death then he would never have even come here.

"I realize what you're saying sir, however most of the witches are more than likely dead by now due to lack of pills and those that were successful in acquiring more will eventually run out. Besides it's only a matter of time before we find the primary target. The information gained from our interrogation of 5010 was actually quite useful as well as the search results provided by 5210 (Nanami) before she was ejected has actually helped to render our search grid to only a handful of areas."

It seemed that Ichijiku's reasoning helped in abating the man with the glasses' anger somewhat but it was obvious that he was still quite cross with him. One of the other five men, this one from the far left spoke up as well voicing his own opinion on the matter "That may be true Chisato but in order to acquire such results you've lost two AA witches and an AA+. I sincerely hope that the reward is worth the sacrifice of more successful experiments your lab has worked on in some time."

Another of the group, a bald fellow if his body's darkened silhouette was any indication then apparently decided to come to the defense of Chisato. "While I will admit that Chisato's handling of the escaped magic users could have been performed better; the majority of his actions up until this point have been instrumental for the success of our plans. I suggest that we give him more time before implementing any punishments."

Fortunately the bald individual was not completely alone in his opinion as one of the two remaining individuals showed some support for Ichijiku, the other one however agreed with the man with the glasses. The man with the glasses raised a hand, signaling for everyone else to remain silent as he spoke. He leaned forward slightly and pressed the tips of his fingers together like an old Bond villain.

"Chisato, realize that under normal circumstances you would be liquidated both legally and otherwise, but I'm willing to give you a little bit of leeway for the time being given that your previous successful experiments before the witches managed to escape helped accelerate our plans ahead of our original predictions. Be warned though, should these failures continue to mount, you will face severe consequences."

The five seated men then promptly faded away even as the environment around Chisato turned from the post-apocalyptic styled landscape and into little more than a moderately sized room that was completely white. The only thing that remained was Chisato and the ornate chair that he sat upon.

The head researcher stood up and let out a sigh and walked out the door directly behind him as his mind started to come up with possible solutions to eliminate the escaped witches and recover one very specific witch.

* * *

To be continued.


	3. Findings

X-Com into Darkness

Chapter 3

Findings

A/N: Chapter's a little bit shorter than usual but don't worry things are going to pick up very, very soon

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Com or Brynhildr in Darkness, they both belong to their respective copyright owners.

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* * *

-Kyoto, Japan, Bar-

* * *

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It'd only been a couple of days since the team first arrived in Kyoto Japan. Echo squad was still trying to find anything that would lead them to some answers about the contents of the briefcase that Zhang had delivered when he joined X-Com. Their first order of business was to locate any evidence that would lead them to the owner of the briefcase. They needed autopsy reports, video footage, anything that could be used to identify whoever was handling that briefcase before the shootout. If only it had been that simple for them.

During their first day in Japan, Kurosawa had made an attempt to hack into the KPD's (Kyoto Police Department) mainframe in an attempt to grab some information on what had happened. Their hope was that maybe the cops had something that they could use help them find out who this individual was and what he was doing with the contents of that briefcase.

Although Kurosawa had been successful in hacking into the police department's mainframe, it'd all been for nothing. Everything was gone; video footage of the event from traffic cameras, the autopsy reports on the victims, the bodies themselves, and any other evidence be it physical or forensic was wiped clean from the database. The official word from the police department was that due to the extreme nature of the shootout in question, all evidence relating to the shooting was to be placed in the care of a 'special investigation unit' of the police department. Apparently this special unit had the facilities to deal with such a large scale gun battle while the normal police officers didn't.

In order for something like this to have occurred, whoever was behind all of this needed to have someone with a _lot_ of influence in the police department and perhaps even the Japanese government. Much to Commander McNeil's relative relief though the Japanese Councilor had been thoroughly investigated by X-Com before he was even admitted onto the council so it was unlikely that he was in on anything shady. Just to be on the safe side however, McNeil had in a number of covert operatives shadowing him to make sure that his loyalties didn't lie elsewhere.

With all records of the police investigation having pretty much gone up in smoke, the only remaining leads that the team had were some of Zhang's contacts in the Japanese criminal underworld. Other Triads, information brokers, and even current and former members of the Yakuza. McNeil and the other leaders of X-Com had expressed their doubts on the reliability on the sources of the information that they would receive. Zhang however did manage to reassure them that he had worked with these individuals in the past and that they could be trusted. As long as they were given sufficient monetary compensation beforehand of course.

With this in mind, Zhang, Kurosawa and Richter set out to locate one of the ex-Triad's contacts. The rest of the team stayed back at base, and were to remain there until their business with the contact had concluded. Just a few minutes ago, Zhang had taken the team to a local bar that his contact frequented when he wasn't doing money laundering, hacking into the bank accounts of the rich, or making sure certain files disappeared from law enforcement mainframes for some criminal organization that he was under the employ of.

The bar itself was rather small and there weren't all that many people there, however this was to be expected, it was only three in the afternoon so most people old enough to drink were probably still at work. When they walked in Richter had been half expecting something that would belong in a bad cop movie. Hell even the contact himself looked pretty normal and Richter had to say that if Zhang hadn't pointed the man out, Richter probably wouldn't have thought the man to be their contact.

The man was in his early thirties, he had short curly black hair and his demeanor and clothing looked more like they belonged on a computer geek that worked for some high profile software company than on a criminal. This was a far cry from someone they expected to be associated with heavy hitting crime circles. Of course that was what was so perfect about the disguise, it would really be difficult to suspect such a geeky looking individual being involved with a group like the Triads or the Yakuza.

The contact was sitting on one of the barstools, casually drinking a glass filled with alcohol. Zhang smiled and walked up to the man and took a seat next to him. "It's been a long time hasn't it, eh Yamamoto?" the former Triad asked while Richter and Kurosawa positioned themselves behind the criminal so they would be able to subdue him in the event that he tried anything that would injure their new teammate.

"Indeed it has Zhang, the last time I saw you in person it was when the Triads, Yakuza and the Russians were all trying to cut deals with each other at that, 'meeting' almost six years ago." Zhang's two accompanying squadmates didn't know what it was this 'Yamamoto' guy was referring to and quite frankly didn't really care, so long as he delivered the information that was promised to them.

Yamamoto then gestured towards the two X-Com operatives that were standing behind him "New friends of yours?" he asked. Zhang looked at his new squadmates before turning his attention back to Yamamoto with a cocked eyebrow "More like, new business associates."

Zhang remembered that before the mission started he hadn't exactly been given a very warm reception by his new teammates most likely due to his history with the Triads. He couldn't blame them as he'd probably have his own doubts had he been in their position. Hopefully though Zhang would be able to eventually gain their trust and perhaps even their respect, but until then he would do whatever he could to prove that he was benign in his motivations and actions.

Richter cleared his throat, as if to tell Zhang and his friend that they needed to finish what they came to this bar for. Zhang looked at his new commanding officer and although he had to admit that it was good to see Yamamoto again after so much time had passed, it was time to get down to business "I'm sorry but it seems as though I must cut the pleasantries short old friend. Do you have what it is we came here for?" he asked.

Yamamoto gave them all a smile before he pulled a USB drive from one of his pockets and handed it to Zhang, "It took me a while but I managed to find a bit of the traffic cam footage of the shootout. It's not much but maybe it'll help."

The computer hacker watched as Zhang passed it to Kurosawa who put the device in a small hand held computer and began checking its contents while scanning it for any computer viruses or other malicious software. It soon came up clean and Kurosawa placed the USB in her coat pocket. They would go over the files once they returned to the safe house and hopefully something would turn up.

The criminal rolled his eyes at the two before turning back to Zhang "Not very trusting now are they?" he asked before taking drinking down more of the alcohol. When Yamamoto finished gulping down more of his booze the man's whole demeanor changed from relaxed to completely tense "I don't know what it is you managed to get yourself into but I'm gonna tell you this only once; as far as I'm concerned, I don't owe you any more favors, we're even now. Understand? I'm not going to go and hack into places like that anymore."

Now that little comment was something that grabbed their attention. "And just what do you mean by that?" Zhang asked his curiosity piqued. Yamamoto then proceeded to chug down the last portion of his drink and signaled the bartender for another round.

"What I mean is that whoever the hell had this data, had access to state of the art encryption, fire walls and anti-hacking software that I've never seen before in my life. I was barely able to get my hands on what's on that USB. If I tried to go for anything other than what I got, then I would've been found out for sure. I may have owed you one Zhang but I'm not willing to get myself killed just to pay off a debt. Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to finish my drink in some relative peace if you would be so kind."

Realizing that they probably weren't going to get anything else out of him without an interrogation chamber the team decided to leave. X-Com may have been completely ruthless towards the aliens but they weren't to touch human targets except when it was purely self-defense. However if whatever was going on here was as serious as this guy was making it out to be then it was very likely that Command may decide to rescind those orders sometime in the near future.

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* * *

-Kyoto, Japan, streets-

* * *

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Shortly after finding out that he didn't have any immediate orders Abel requested that he be allowed to leave the safe-house and have a look around the city. He told them that he wanted to 'familiarize himself with the city's infrastructure,' but he really just wanted to get out of the safe-house for a few hours at least.

This was a fact that his teammates were able to immediately picked up on but they allowed him to do regardless, the boy needed a break and he was more than capable of taking care of himself should something arise. If Abel was in a situation he couldn't handle he had a communicator with him that he could use to call for backup.

During his first few weeks as an X-Com operative, Abel had a very difficult time adjusting to living underground. He always seemed much more anxious when he was spending at X-Com HQ than when he was out on a mission with the rest of Echo squad. It was difficult to tell the passing of time in an underground base, mainly due to the complete lack of natural lighting. This, along with the thoughts of what had happened to his family caused him more than just a few sleepless nights.

It took a while but eventually Abel got used to it, although he took whatever chance he could to go up on the surface when he was given leave. Granted it wasn't as if he could go home as it was not only hundreds of miles away from Nevada but he'd also been told that they had covered up his family's disappearance.

The official story given to the news was that they witnessed a murder of a man by members of the mafia while out camping and after going to the police they were put into witness protection. True it sounded like something out of a Law and Order episode but it was a much better explanation than that he and his family had been abducted by alien invaders and that now Abel was working for a black ops organization.

Currently Abel was walking down the sidewalk taking in many of the sights that there were to see in Kyoto, all the while enjoying the fact that he was outside of the X-Com base without being shot at by alien invaders. People were out and about almost everywhere without a care in the world. Abel then started to wonder how people would react if and when they found out that the planet was under threat by a group of hostile aliens that killed, abducted and experimented on humans.

It was highly doubtful that the vast majority of people on the planet would take it very well, hell most of the human population would probably start to panic if they knew that there was an alien invasion going on. Anyone with even a minuscule amount of sense would end up stocking up on weapons, supplies and other survivalist gear, they would be terrified to so much as leave their own homes, it would be like what happened after 9/11, only it would happen all over the planet not just in the United States.

Sure X-Com and the Council managed to keep things under wraps for the time being but the aliens had begun to increase their activities. Abductions occurred several times a week and in multiple locations around the globe, X-Com tried to respond to as many as they could but they had only so many soldiers to spare. Sooner or later no matter how hard the governments' of the world tried to cover up the presence of the extraterrestrials on Earth, the general public would eventually catch wind of what was going on whether they liked it or not.

Abel was brought out of his thoughts after he heard a loud groaning noise coming from his stomach. The groaning noise was accompanied by a sharp pain in his abdomen area that told him that he was hungry. He knew that he shouldn't have skipped breakfast even if it was just some rather bland MREs (the investigation team made a vow that they'd get better food the second they got the chance to do so).

It was just too tempting to go out and enjoy the relatively fresh air for a while and after being cooped up in an underground base. Hell the only time he was ever really let out and allowed to walk on the surface was either for a mission against the alien invaders or for a two day leave, and that wasn't even including the long plane ride to Japan.

Abel stopped walking and looked around for someplace that he could get some food. Eventually his eyes fell upon a nearby restaurant that seemed to primarily serve noodles, it seemed fairly inexpensive and the team had been given more than enough yen (A/N: yen is Japan's currency for those you who haven't heard of it before) than they could ever really use on the mission. Still though, Richter had made a point by setting up a budget before they left X-Com HQ, which thankfully included getting some real food to eat rather than just a bunch of MREs.

The X-Com operative was about to walk into the restaurant where some decent food awaited him when he felt a slight tug at his back pocket where he kept his wallet. Wondering what it was, Abel quickly turned around and saw a girl roughly the same age he was, maybe a year younger than him at most. The girl herself had mid-length brown hair that was done up into a side ponytail and her bangs were parted using a gold colored hairclip. She was also holding his wallet in her hands with a surprised look on her face. Apparently she didn't really expect him to notice her pickpocket attempt.

The girl's shock quickly dissipated and she sprinted off towards a nearby alley. Not wasting any time Abel immediately pursued her, all the while yelling things like: "Get back here with my wallet you damn pickpocket!" As well as some more obscene phrases towards the thief.

The girl just ignored him and continued running as quickly as she could to get away from him. Eventually she started to passed a couple of garbage cans and pushed them to the ground as she ran past them, in the hopes that they would slow Abel down. This failed as Abel simply jumped over them or maneuvered around them and continued his pursuit of the thief.

As Abel continued to chase the pickpocket, the girl attempted to create more obstacles to slow him down. She did this mainly through pushing things such as garbage cans, cardboard boxes and even at one point a broken refrigerator that was being wheeled out of an apartment. Hell she even tried to lose him in any nearby crowd but Abel kept right on her trail.

Eventually Abel chased the girl into an alley that lead directly into a brick wall. There was a single door that led into a nearby three story hotel building but it was locked as the girl had attempted to use the door shortly after entering the alleyway. Now she was up against the brick wall, sweating and panting all at once. The rapid breaths she was making told him that she was completely out of breath, and if he was perfectly honest Abel was just about at that point as well.

The girl backed up against the wall and had nothing but fear and exhaustion in her eyes. Although he was unbelievably irritated that the girl had managed to steal from him and lead him on an annoyingly long chase through the streets and back allies of Kyoto, Abel had no intention of harming the girl, in fact all he wanted was his stolen items returned to him. "Alright, now look lady. I'm not going to hurt you all I want is my wallet and the money inside it back, that's all."

The girl wasn't given a chance to reply as the sound of footsteps came towards them and Abel realized that the girl wasn't as afraid of him as she was the people that were behind him. When Abel turned around he saw a group of six men in police uniforms making their way towards them. Ordinarily this wouldn't be much of a cause for concern for Abel considering he hadn't done anything wrong but he quickly realized that something was definitely off about them.

They already had their weapons drawn and although Abel didn't know much about how the police in Japan operated, but he'd wager that they normally carry MP5s equipped with silencers and that Japanese police officers definitely didn't draw their guns on a pair of unarmed kids unless they were committing a felony. However Abel doubted that he nor the girl who had pilfered his wallet had committed a felony or anything else that would cause them to draw their weapons on them.

Abel was about to ask them what the hell they were planning on doing when the door leading from the hotel and into the alley opened up. In what was perhaps an amazing stroke of good fortune it seemed that one of the employees decided to choose now of all times to take out the garbage from the kitchens. Strangely enough he quickly spotted the two teens but didn't seem to notice the gun toting police officers that were aiming their weapons over at the two frightened kids. He must have assumed that they were caught off guard when he opened the door and spotted them or something along those lines.

Once the employee spotted the two kids he frowned, apparently getting the wrong idea on what was going on and was about to chastise them for picking this particular spot for the kind of activity he assumed they were performing. Before he could speak however, Abel saw an opportunity to get away from the gun toting 'cops' and grabbed the girl before rushing through the door and into the hotel, even as the 'police officers' opened fire with their submachine guns.

Since the two of them were near the door when the shooting started it allowed them to get into the building without getting hit by the gunfire. The hotel employee however wasn't nearly as lucky as Abel and the girl were. While attempting to gun down the two teens, the 'police officers' incidentally shot the man who was taking out the garbage. His chest was peppered with nine millimeter rounds and he practically flew onto the ground from the force of the impacts.

Once they were inside, Abel saw the girl was about to go back to try and rescue the employee but he kept a very firm grip on the girl even as he shut the door and locked it behind him. "We can't just leave that guy out there!" the girl cried but Abel refused to loosen his grip "He's dead already, if we go out there we'll join him now come on!" he yelled before the girl finally ceased struggling against him.

Abel loosened his grip and eventually let go of her arm completely when he was sure that the girl wouldn't try and do something stupid like go and open up the door to see if she could help the guy on the other side. The two all but jumped when they heard banging coming from the other side. It wasn't the sound of gunfire, more like someone was banging on the door with their fist.

Sure enough demands for entry were heard from the other side while the banging on the door started to increase. Thankfully though the door was made out of a thick metal material so it was unlikely that they would be able to break it down without using a battering ram in the process. Abel turned to look over at the girl and found that she was just standing there with a terrified look on her face.

Abel grabbed the girl's arm and jerked her away from the door and shouted "What are you just standing there for? Come on we need to keep moving!" That seemed to have managed to snap the girl out of her stupor as she started running with him away from the door and into the hallway. The two soon reached the lobby and Abel saw a pair of police officers by the front information desk, they didn't have MP5's like the others but it didn't look like they were there on a purely social call.

Though they could very well have been real police officers but Abel wasn't willing to take that kind of chance at the moment. They needed to find someplace to hide, fast! From there Abel would use his comm. unit to call in the rest of his team for backup. Abel quickly spotted an elevator, that would hopefully give the two some breathing room while he called for help.

"Follow me," Abel whispered to the girl before they walked over to the elevator as calmly as they could so as to not draw any unwanted attention to themselves. once they were inside Abel pressed the 'close door' button repeatedly until the elevator doors finally closed. From there he pushed the button that read: 'seventh floor,' and just a few seconds later the elevator started to ascend.

Once the elevator started to ascend, Abel tried to let out a sigh of relief but it instead came out more as exhausted panting partially due to the chase from earlier. Eventually though he was able to get his breathing back to normal and he pulled out a small headset that heavily resembled a Bluetooth and placed it over his left ear. Abel tuned the transmitter to his squad's communication frequency "Lieutenant Richter this is Squaddie Jackson are you receiving me?"

There was a tense three second pause before Abel heard a response from the lieutenant "We read you Jackson, what's your situation?" This time Abel did let out a sigh of relief, he'd been worried that the comm. unit was out of range but it seemed as though that was not the case "I'm in a hotel with a civilian, a girl whose about a year, year and a half younger than I am. We came under unprovoked attack by hostiles dressed in local law enforcement uniforms. They've already gunned down a civilian and they are currently searching the building for us, we need extraction as quickly as possible!"

Abel thought he heard Richter mutter something on the other end of the line before replying "Do they seem to know who you were?" he asked clearly worried that they may have been compromised. "No sir, they seemed to be targeting the civilian, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

There was another silence on the end of the line, "Alright, we're triangulating your position now, stay hidden from the hostiles until we get there. Contact us if anything happens." Abel felt a little bit more confident in his chances now and said "Understood."

The young X-Com operative looked over at the girl he'd saved "You mind telling me why in the hell some guys dressed as the cops want to gun you down?" The girl looked reluctant to speak but eventually she answered him "My name is Hatsuna Wakabayashi and they're after me because I'm a magic user." Hatsuna didn't want to tell him that as it would probably put his life in serious danger but considering the circumstances it was clear that his life was already in jeopardy so it didn't really matter if she told him or not.

Of all the things that this Hatsuna could have said, _that_ threw Abel for a loop. "I'm sorry you're a what?" he asked trying to make sure he'd heard things right. The girl turned around and moved her hair away from the back of her neck and Abel saw something that even he wasn't quite prepared to see.

There was an implant on her neck that looked almost exactly like the ones that had been found in the briefcase they'd recovered after Echo squad's mission in China. Vahlen and some of the other scientists had theorized that these things were put into human bodies but they were under the assumption that it would be in a manner to how some drug cartels smuggled their wares into other countries. However it seemed as though this wasn't the case here given where that implant was located.

"What the hell do you mean by a 'magic user'?" he asked before gesturing to the implant on the back of her neck "And just what is that thing?" Rather than answer him directly she took her pinky finger in her right hand and bent it to the side until there was a cracking noise, signifying that it was either broken or at least dislocated.

Abel couldn't understand what Hatsuna was trying to do by would break one of her fingers, "What the fu-" he started but stopped when he saw something equally disturbing and amazing. The finger bent itself back to its natural state and it didn't even look as if it had been broken at all, nor did Hatsuna appear to be in any pain whatsoever.

The young X-Com operative was about to ask what in the hell was going on when the elevator suddenly stopped but it was obvious that it hadn't reached its intended destination as the screen at the top of the doors read that it was only the fifth floor. Before either of them could utter so much as a word, a voice that Abel didn't recognize from anyone in X-Com came in over the communicator.

"Be careful, you're about to stumble into an ambush!"

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to be continued.


	4. Deep Throat

X-Com Into Darkness

Chapter 4

Deep Throat

disclaimer: I don't own X-Com or Brynhildr in Darkness. I only own the characters that I have personally created. (do I really need to keep putting this in?)

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-Kyoto, Japan, Astronomy Clubhouse-

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It had all started out as a relatively normal day at the Astronomy Clubhouse. After the school day had finally ended, Ryouta and the other members of the club would gather at the Astronomy Clubhouse for 'club activities' for the rest of the day. Of course the 'club activities' were mostly whatever the group did during their free time. Most of the club activities took place after sunset as it was pretty much the only real time of the day where they could actually do anything related to astronomy.

Currently the entirety of the group was outside enjoying a rather nice day and having some lunch that the group had prepared beforehand. It wasn't a meal that was made in some five star restaurant or something like that but it was a pretty decent meal anyway. Ryouta was the only person in the group who wasn't having some of the food, instead he was very deep in thought.

About a week ago Ryouta had approached his uncle, a scientist that went by the name of Kogorou Hashiratani. He was a university professor that was considered by many to be a complete and utter genius if a bit on the eccentric side. If anyone could make more of those death suppressants for Kuroha and the other witches, then it would be him.

Ryouta was half right in that respect. Kogorou could manufacture more of the death suppressants but it would take him well over a month to do so and the group only had enough for another couple of weeks at most. His uncle had already started on making more of the death suppressants but he didn't have the facilities to manufacture them within a couple of weeks. Ryouta wasn't willing to watch these people die because they couldn't get what they needed to survive.

Because of this Ryouta took a little excursion into Tokyo with a communicator that Kuroha had been given by a dying scientist from the lab after she had helped her and several other magic users manage to escape. The communicator had only one contact listed which was called Hexenjagd which meant "Witch Hunt" in German. The name of the group didn't really fill him with much hope but it was really his only real option at the time.

The results were worse than he had originally thought. This Hexenjagd tried to convince Ryouta to tell them where the witches were located so that they could be killed. Obviously this didn't sit too well with Ryouta as he immediately deactivated the communicator and removed the batteries that powered it in the event that it could be used to track his location. Now he was back where he started. He needed to locate a new source of death suppressants soon because they were all going to end up dead before the month was over if he didn't.

Ryouta was broken out of his thoughts when he heard Kana's voice synthesizer and whatever it was sounded urgent, which meant that she probably just had a vision of someone's death "I just had a forecast!" she exclaimed through her voice box. Everyone literally dropped whatever it was they had beendoing and went over to the paralyzed girl and waited for her to speak again.

"In less than ten minutes a seventeen year old boy is going to be gunned down in an elevator shaft in a hotel called the Senren Niwa (Translation: Polished Garden for those who don't know Japanese) and the magic user he's with is going to be dragged off to the lab and will be tortured for several hours before being ejected!" Ryouta knew the place, it was a pretty decent hotel that Ryouta sometime's passed on his commute to school. The only problem was that it was several miles away and they couldn't possibly make it there in time to stop the either of the two from being killed.

However there was something that Kazumi could do. Ryouta looked over to the pink haired hacker "Kazumi, do you think you could hack into the hotel's systems?" he asked as most hotels like the Senren Niwa had security cameras and similar equipment. Kazumi looked thoughtful for a few moments, It would be child's play for her to use her magic to hack in and use the security cameras to help the two people in their escape.

Eventually she looked at them with a confident smile "Well of course I can Ryouta. You know I'm actually kind of hurt with how little faith you have in my abilities," she declared while clutching her chest in an overdramatic fashion. Kazumi tried her best to sound very confident in her own abilities but it was very obvious to those that knew her that she was just as worried as the rest of the group about the two people who were about to be gunned down if they didn't do anything about it.

The group hurried inside the observatory and watched as Kazumi all but hopped into the chair in front of the computer and turned it on. Once the screen lit up Kazumi put on a pair of headphones that came with an attached mic while attaching a USB cable that ran from the computer and into her harnessed.

Soon Kazumi felt a familiar rush go through her mind as she entered cyberspace. She loved this feeling, it was like she was flying above the clouds and she could go anywhere in the world in an instant without restraint. However Kazumi knew that it was just an artificial feeling and that the real thing would more than likely prove infinitely more amazing. Ever since escaping the lab Kazumi knew that her life was on a very short time limit and because of this she wanted to experience as much of what the world had to offer as she possibly could, or at the very least do something that would validate her own existence.

Kazumi pushed those thoughts out of her head and instead focused on the task at hand, she couldn't afford to get herself distracted at the moment. The pink haired hacker continued to sift through until finally she found the hotel's systems. The pink haired hacker began to sift through the security cameras until she found the ones that were located in the elevators.

She looked for the people that matched the description of those who were about to die horribly for a couple of minutes until at last she came upon what she was searching for. The video of what was going on in the elevator was streaming live on the computer's monitor and without taking her eyes off of the screen she asked "Kana are these the people who are about to die?" she asked.

Kana was helped into a nearby chair by Kotori and Kuroha. After having her head moved towards the screen where she could see better Kana began typing into the keyboard of the device she used to speak "Yep that's them alright." Now that they had found them, all they needed now was to find a way to communicate with them. Neither appeared to have a cell phone or something similar on them so it would probably prove to be a bit more difficult than-

Kazumi's train of thought stopped when she saw the boy take out a small headset that wasn't all that dissimilar to that of a Bluetooth and began to speak into it. While he spoke into it Kazumi worked on getting the elevator's systems under her control. It took a few moments of typing into the computer but Kazumi was able to stop the machine from getting any closer to its destination. By the time she was finished hacking into the elevator's systems the boy had stopped speaking into the communicator but he still had it on his ear.

The elevator's only two occupants looked confused and looked around the small room as though searching for what went wrong. As they did this Kazumi took the time to tap into the communicator that the boy was using. Much to her surprise it was actually quite difficult to get access to its systems. Eventually though she managed to circumvent the security systems and spoke into the mic, "Be careful, you're about to stumble into an ambush," she warned.

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-Hotel, Elevator-

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For several seconds Abel was simply unable respond to what the voice on the other line had said as dozens of thoughts entered his mind. Mainly they had to do with the voice's identity and what in the hell they were doing on what was supposed to be a secure channel?! Whoever this person was they kept their voice hidden by some kind of voice modulator so Abel couldn't even identify the gender of this individual.

He also wanted to know why this individual had opted to warn them about a so called 'ambush' that they were going to walk into. What was their angle, and what were they getting out of this by helping them? Abel briefly considered that this was some sort of a trap but soon dismissed the idea entirely. These guys, whoever they were, had probably already surrounded the building and were probably combing the whole place even as the elevator continued upwards, they didn't need to set any traps, all they needed was to be patient and thorough.

Eventually Abel spoke, trying to sound hard and commanding as best he could "This is a secure channel, identify yourself now!" he ordered. There was a brief pause for a second or two before they Abel heard a response and it wasn't really what he had been expecting "You can call me…Deep Throat."

At this Abel cocked a brow in disbelief, someone was using that old spy movie cliché as a codename? At first Abel couldn't really find the words to respond but eventually he spoke up "Really, you're calling yourself Deep Throat? Are you freaking kidding me?" he asked incredulously. There was a small pause, as if the person on the other end of the line was trying to figure out how to respond to such a question.

Eventually though the individual did give a response "Look I don't know who else is listening so I'm not taking any chances, you need to use the emergency escape hatch. Right now I have the elevator locked down in a maintenance cycle but I can't keep it that way for much longer and the moment that the elevator reaches its destination you'll both be gunned down."

"How do you know that this is going to happen and why would you help us?" It was an obvious question and one that the voice had clearly anticipated if the quick response was anything to go by. "I hacked into the hotel's security system so I can use all the cameras in the building. As for why I'm helping you well, that girl you're with is a friend of a friend who doesn't want her getting killed. Now if you want to live I suggest that you go up the elevator escape hatch, now!"

Abel grit his teeth for a moment before he finally relented "Alright fine, but if I even think that you're trying to screw us over I promise that you won't live long enough to regret it!" The young X-Com operative then looked over at the left hand corner of the elevator and saw the emergency access hatch. Immediately Abel activated his communicator and spoke into it as he walked towards the hatch "Sir, I take it you heard all that?"

The response from Richter came swiftly "Of course we did, whoever this Deep Throat person is I don't think they're working for your pursuers, just be careful about the instructions given by this individual. Just hang in there, we'll be there within twenty mikes at the most. We'll meet you in the B2 parking garage."

"Sure thing sir." In this kind of situation twenty minutes may as well have been twenty hours. They could only find somewhere to hide for so long as the building was probably swarming with armed hostiles by now. To make matters worse it would probably be incredibly difficult for Richter and the rest of his team to get close to the parking garage without being detected by anyone else in the building.

The young X-Com operative shook himself out of his thoughts and walked over to the elevator's emergency hatch. Fortunately for Abel the ceiling wasn't nearly as high up as it was on most elevators, In fact Abel would probably be able to reach up and open the emergency escape hatch if he jumped high enough. As he started to try and open the escape hatch, Hatsuna gave him a look that told him that she wanted answers, preferably sooner rather than later "You mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

Abel knew that that was probably just the first in a long line of questions that the girl probably had for him but now simply wasn't the time for that. They needed to get out of there now! Instead of responding to Hatsuna's question, Abel instead jumped upwards and grabbed the emergency escape hatch by the relatively small sized release lever and pulled down. The hatch opened and a small ladder unfolded downwards.

Once the ladder was fully drawn Abel finally spoke "Hatsuna I don't have time to explain but if you want to live then I suggest that we both get up this ladder now!" he ordered before climbing upwards. Hatsuna wanted to press the young X-Com operative for more information but she soon decided that this was neither the place nor the time for something like that. But once they someplace where they weren't running the risk of being hunted down and killed she was going to get some answers from him whether he liked it or not.

Abel was the first one up the ladder followed closely behind by Hatsuna. Once they finished climbing up into the elevator shaft their senses were assaulted by a old stale, dusty smell. Almost immediately Abel felt the almost uncontrollable urge to sneeze but managed to successfully ward it off. It was times like these that he cursed his allergy towards dust as it could very well inadvertently give away their position to whoever might be up there waiting for them to step out of the elevator.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, Abel pulled the ladder back up, resealing the escape hatch as he did. It would be pretty pathetic for their pursuers to figure out where they were just because he forgot to bring up the ladder with him. Seconds after the hatch was resealed the elevator started back up again. Abel guessed that this was probably either Deep Throat's doing or whoever these people were somehow managed to regain control over the elevator again.

The elevator continued to rise upwards until at last it slowed to a stop. Both Abel and Hatsuna kept as still as possible and minimized their breathing so as to not attract any attention from whoever might be on the other side of the elevator doors. In just a few moments the elevator doors opened up but as they did manage to hear a couple of "pfft" noises could be heard as the interior of the elevator was hit by a long burst of bullets. After a few seconds of firing one of the armed men shouted "Cease fire!"

Following the apparent leader of the group's orders to the letter, the soldiers immediately stopped firing their weapons. The man in charge then yelled at what was presumably one of his subordinates "Shima, I thought you said that Akiyama saw the two targets enter the elevator!?" he demanded. At first this Shima person fumbled for a sentence but eventually he responded to his superior's question "Well Akiyama could have been mistaken or maybe they got off on a different floor, I mean it did stop for a minute sir."

Abel could practically feel the man's superior officer roll his eyes before he gave a retort "The elevator stopped because there was a system malfunction so the doors were unable to open, hell we couldn't even get camera access to the inside of it. Let's spread out, Shima, you, Koike and Ohashi check this floor the rest of us will spread out in three man teams on the lower floors, leave no room unchecked, now move."

Footsteps could be heard as the group separated and headed to the floors that they were instructed to search. Once Abel was sure that the ones hunting them were no longer in the immediate vicinity he activated his communicator and said "Okay, 'Deep Throat' if you're still there, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you're monitoring everyone through the security cameras,"

There was a few moments of silence before Abel finally heard a reply in the form of the same modulated voice "Yes I'm here and yes I'm monitoring you through the cameras. As of now the elevators are all offline and I can't get them back up and running without them finding out about it. The only way you can get down to the garage where you're friends are waiting is using the stairs."

"Swell," Abel muttered irritably as he started to reopen the emergency escape hatch, and climb back down into the elevator "Can you at least let us know where our pursuers are at?" he requested. There wasn't so much as a brief pause before the reply came "Yes I can do that. Right now there are two of them checking rooms at opposite ends of the corridor while the other is currently heading away from the elevator. There is an open hotel room directly across from the elevator shaft, you should be able to take cover in there."

With that Abel quickly descended from the escape hatch with Hatsuna in tow, the latter of whom was still giving him strange looks that told him that she wanted answers. The young X-Com Operative saw that the elevator doors were still wide open, probably a result of the elevator's systems having been shut down but there wasn't anyone out there waiting for him at least.

After quickly and quietly putting the emergency escape ladder and hatch back into their original places Hatsuna looked at him and whispered "You don't have to do this you know, they just want me. I can distract them and-" she started but couldn't finish before Abel cut her off "If you think I'm going to let you go through with that stupid idea, then you've got another thing coming. These guys don't care if I'm not the one they're after they'll kill me just because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and if you try and go through with that idiotic plan, then I will be forced drag you kicking and screaming to safety if I have to!"

Hatsuna knew then and there that Abel wasn't going to relent on stopping what he probably saw as some kind of a suicide attempt "Fine, what do you suggest that we do then?" she asked finally relenting. Abel gestured to his communicator and said "There's someone calling themselves: 'Deep Throat.' Whoever this person is, they want to help us get out of here. Apparently they've hacked into the security system in order to help us get out of here. Just follow me and do what I say and we'll both live through this."

After a few moments thinking on the offer Abel had given her, Hatsuna gave him an affirmative nod. With that out of the way Abel was about to contact Deep Throat again but before he could even open his mouth Deep Throat's voice came through the comm. unit's receiver "The enemy isn't facing you at the moment, now run into the room directly across from the elevator! They've already searched it so you can use it as a hiding spot until they finish searching the other rooms!"

Right before they made their way into the hotel room, Abel checked the hallway to make sure that none of the armed men were looking in their particular direction. After seeing that there wasn't anyone looking his way Abel and Hatsuna ran as quickly and quietly as they could into the hotel room. Although Abel wanted to close the door behind them in order to better hide from their pursuers, he knew that if he did then it was likely that they would realize that someone had managed to slip into the room when they weren't looking.

Unfortunately just as they entered Abel accidentally kicked a small crumpled soda can with his foot. Abel looked down at his own blunder "Shit," he muttered to himself, angry at his own foolishness. He knew that one of the soldiers could very well have heard that noise and if that happened then they were probably screwed. Thinking quickly Abel grabbed Hatsuna and pulled her into the bathroom nearby, hoping that it would work as a hiding spot.

Thankfully the door opened without so much as a creek and after getting inside it closed just as silently. Hatsuna looked confused but once she saw the urgent look on Abel's face she decided it would be best not to ask him anything at the moment. Abel pushed the talk button on his communicator "Deep Throat are any of the soldiers patrolling the halls heading for us?" he asked urgently. "There's one that's headed your way, the other two are checking other rooms. Hurry and find a hiding spot now!"

Abel looked at Hatsuna who seemed a little confused. Silently Abel promised himself to get that girl a communicator the second he had the chance so that he wouldn't have to explain what happened after every conversation he had through the comm. channels. "One of the guards is coming this way, we needed to hide," he explained causing Hatsuna to look very worried despite her ability regenerate. It was clear that whoever was chasing Hatsuna had far more disturbing plans than just killing her if she was captured.

The young X-Com operative looked around frantically for something, anything that could be used as a weapon. He checked the drawers and cabinets by the bathroom sink and didn't find so much as a pair of nail clippers. Eventually Abel rested his eyes on something he never thought that he'd use as a weapon in his life.

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Ohashi was the only one in his search party that heard the sound of a can banging against something. His first inclination was to call in the noise. However if it was a false alarm not only would he end up looking like a complete idiot in front of his comrades but he would also slow down the search giving their targets a chance to escape. Ultimately Ohashi decided that it would be best to investigate the source of the noise and _then_ call it in if it turned out to be something of any real importance.

As Ohashi neared the room where the noise had originated from he raised his silenced MP5 in anticipation of what he might find waiting for him. He walked into the room and saw that nothing was inside other than a few bags and random items scattered across the room. The occupants had probably left in a hurry when Ohashi and his comrades showed up. After all most people would run for the hills if they thought that terrorists had decided to plant a series of bombs in the place they were staying at.

After checking the moderately sized hotel room and finding no signs of anyone in the immediate area, Ohashi looked over to the door leading into the bathroom. Knowing that it was more than likely that someone could easily use the bathroom as a hiding spot, the soldier slowly and quietly walked towards the door that lead into the bathroom. Soon Ohashi found himself in front of the restroom door and grasped the door handle with his left hand while he kept his gun level with his right.

Slowly he opened the door and walked in even as the door closed shut behind him. There didn't appear to be anyone inside but he soon noticed that the shower curtains were drawn at the bathtub. Ohashi raised his weapon and cautiously walked up to the shower room, as he did though he failed to notice that when the door was opened it covered a corner of the room with enough space for two people. The soldier was so focused on what was in front of him that he failed to notice the door to the bathroom close behind him.

Ohashi was about to pull back on the curtains when he heard the sound of footsteps right behind him. He turned to see both of the targets right behind him. The boy was standing in front with a calm and collected expression on his face while the girl looked nervous. Ohashi didn't even have enough time to utter a breath before the boy used both his hands to slam something hard and heavy into his face. For a brief second Ohashi felt a flash of pain before everything went dark.

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The second that the armed man was struck hard in the face by Abel's improvised weapon; the lid for the tank on the toilet. The impact made a cracking noise as the man's unconscious body fell to the floor. That combined with the fact that his nose was bent at an odd angle and bleeding profusely told Abel that not only had he knocked the man out but he'd also succeeded in breaking the man's nose.

"Is everyone alright?!" Deep Throat asked worriedly apparently having heard the impact over the communicator. Abel let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding in and replied "Yeah, we're fine are any of the other guards coming this way?" he asked as he knelt beside the unconscious body and pried the silenced submachine gun from the unconscious man's grip. It wasn't an X-Com weapon but it would have to do for the time being.

Abel took off the man's tactical vest and put it on before grabbing whatever extra ammunition his now unconscious foe had on him. Ordinarily Abel would have given the vest to his charge but given that Hatsuna could regenerate from seemingly any wound she didn't really need any body armor. That didn't mean though that she couldn't benefit from another form of protection.

The unconscious man that had been masquerading as a police officer had a pistol on him as well. Checking the weapon he saw that it was a Glock .45. This convinced Abel beyond a reasonable doubt that none of these guys were with the Japanese police force. The mandatory sidearm for the Japanese police was a .38special revolver, not a .45 Glock.

A quick search of the man's ammo pouches revealed a couple of eighteen round clips for the pistol. Abel passed them along with the gun over to Hatsuna who fumbled with the weapon and looked at it nervously for a few long moments before back up at Abel "I-I can't use this thing," she whispered fearfully.

It took a monumental amount of restraint to keep the young X-Com operative from either rolling his eyes, groaning or both. Abel took back the weapon from the so called 'witch' and began to show her how to use it "Look Hatsuna, it's not that hard you just point and pull the trigger. Once you run out of bullets you push this button and the empty magazine slides out of the gun and then you slap in a new one and pull back on the slide to chamber the next bullet. The little switch right here is the safety so when you're not in combat you keep it in the off position."

Despite his instructions on how to operate the weapon she still seemed very nervous, to say the least. It wasn't that she was afraid to use the weapon, no she was more afraid that she'd hurt somebody "But I don't want-" she couldn't finish her sentence because Abel grabbed her by her shirt's collar and looked at her dead in the eye "If you _don't_ end up using it then we're both dead and I don't know about you but I don't want either of us to die just yet!"

Hatsuna looked as though she wanted to say something but Abel wasn't finished "Look I'm not expecting you to use it unless we get shot at first, for right now just keep the safety on and keep it pointed at the ground, I'll tell you when and where you can use it." That seemed to alleviate some of Hatsuna's fears but at least she didn't look like she was about to toss the gun away the first chance she got anymore.

Abel kept the silenced submachine gun close as he walked out of the bathroom and made his way towards the door of the hotel room while Hatsuna followed close behind him. The moment that Abel was close enough to the exit he pushed the talk button on his earpiece "Deep Throat is there anyone patrolling the hallway?" he asked. There was a brief pause before the individual on the other line responded "No, they're currently searching some of the other rooms but I suggest you hurry to the stairs before they finish searching."

Carefully the two walked down the hall and towards the stairs. They were as silent as they could possibly be so as to not draw any attention to themselves. As Abel took the lead his heart started pounding more and more as his anxiety started to increase with every moment that they were out in the middle of the open like this.

The hallway they were in had no cover and if either of those guards poked their heads out the door then they would definitely end up seeing both of them and it was unlikely that the two of them would last for very long. Hatsuna would probably survive given her regenerating abilities but lord only knew what those guys would do to her if they managed to capture her. The longer the two of them were out in the open the likelier that they were going to end up spotted by one of the other guys that were searching for them.

With every step the two took, there were a number of small, almost unnoticeable creaking noises brought about by the floorboards underneath the carpet. The noises were faint and difficult to hear but every time Abel or Hatsuna heard these sounds they became worried that one of the men searching for them would notice it too.

After a long and tense seven or eight seconds of sneaking passed the armed men the two finally found themselves in front of the door that lead into the stairwell. Suddenly and without warning Deep Throat's modulated voice came over the comm. channels "Look out behind you!" the voice yelled.

Abel spun around, raising his weapon while he did and saw one of the armed men that had been searching one of the hotel rooms for them step out of a door nearby. The man spotted them and started to raise his MP5 and was about to call out to his comrade who was probably still searching one of the other rooms but Abel squeezed the trigger on his weapon and sent a three round burst aimed directly at the man's head as the body armor that he wore would easily block nine millimeter bullets. All of the shots hit their mark and the man went down with three bullet holes in his head.

Unfortunately as the man fell his finger reflexively pulled the trigger on his gun, sending several shots upwards into the ceiling. While this normally wouldn't be a problem seeing as how the gunfire was muffled due to the silencer the impact the bullets made when they collided against the ceiling could still easily be heard by anyone that was nearby.

Sure enough, within less than a second the other gunman poked his head out of the room briefly and saw the two that he and his colleagues had been searching for. Before he could raise his weapon though, Abel aimed the weapon in his general direction and squeezed the trigger on full auto. Bullets peppered the wall that was near the room the enemy gunman was using for cover but none of the rounds managed to hit their mark. The man ducked back into the room and was probably getting on his radio to let his friends know that he'd managed to find their two targets.

Abel knew that it would be suicide for him and Hatsuna to stay in that hallway any longer. If they did then the both of them would end up being cut down in overlapping fields of fire. Abel quickly turned to Hatsuna and said "We have to get out of here now!"

Hatsuna nodded and the two ran into the stairwell and began to head downwards toward the parking lot, all the while hoping that Abel's friends would be waiting for them by the time they got there.

They all but sprinted down the stairs towards the parking level and as they did, Abel spoke into his communicator. "Sir, we've been made, we're heading for the parking level, so I really hope that everyone's there waiting for us!" he said as the two started making their way down the stairs as quickly as possible.

The response wasn't what Abel had been wanting to hear "Don't worry we're almost there, just hold out until we make it to your position!"

"Understood sir, just please for the love of god hurry!"

The two continued to make their way down the stairs, jumping over several steps whenever they had the chance so they could make it to their destination a little faster. Unfortunately there were several more gunmen making their way down and once they spotted Hatsuna and Abel they opened fire. Thankfully though the stairs from the upper levels were made out of concrete making them more than adequate protection.

Abel aimed his weapon upwards at the pursuing soldiers and fired off a couple of bursts at the enemy while Hatsuna unsteadily raised her own weapon at the same group of enemies and squeezed the trigger. The girl was unprepared for the recoil and her round went wild, completely missing her intended targets. By whatever odds the bullet managed to strike another target instead. It was a fire extinguisher that had been mounted directly on the wall.

The .45 round easily pierced the thin metal that kept the pressurized carbon dioxide and nitrogen contained causing it to spray outwards and create a small smokescreen. Their pursuers started coughing as the fire extinguishing chemicals entered their lungs. It wouldn't harm them but it would keep them busy for a couple of minutes while they tried to expel the carbon dioxide and get some oxygen into their lungs.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity that was just handed to the two on a silver platter both Hatsuna and Abel continued making their way down to the parking garage. The two ran downstairs for what seemed like an eternity but eventually they reached the underground parking lot.

As they entered the parking garage, Abel checked his remaining ammunition and found that he only had about two and a half clips left for his submachine gun. He really, really hoped that his comrades were already there waiting for them because he and Hatsuna would be screwed otherwise.

The parking garage wasn't nearly as large as the ones in shopping malls or airports. Instead it consisted of only two relatively small levels. There were several cars parked in the garage more than likely they were from the hotel's patrons, providing Hatsuna and Abel with a relatively ample amount of cover.

As Abel closed the door behind them he heard the sound of footsteps heading in their direction. He knew that without something heavy to barricade the door with, their pursuers wouldn't be stalled in the slightest. Abel looked over at Hatsuna and gestured for her to follow him. The two then ran for the parking garage's upper level as it would allow them to take the high ground and give them a slight advantage.

By the time they made their way up there was a loud slamming noise as well as the sound of footfalls echoing from the lower level of the parking garage. They were almost on them. Both of them took cover behind a nearby car and as the enemy got closer, Abel took off the silencer on the SMG knowing that it was pretty much pointless to continue using it as their pursuers already knew where they were. Besides the sounds coming from the weapon would help Richter and the others find them.

Abel peaked from behind the cover he was using and spotted the approaching enemies. He raised his weapon, took aim at the nearest target and fired off a burst from his weapon. The first two bullets struck the man in his Kevlar vest but the second impacted his neck. The man went down in an instant and blood began spouting from the wound. The other hostiles opened fire on their position and the car they were hiding behind was instantly peppered with nine millimeter rounds. Thankfully though the rounds weren't nearly strong enough to penetrate through to the car's engine or gas tank.

Eventually though there was a brief pause in the fire allowing Abel and Hatsuna the opportunity to return fire. At first Hatsuna seemed very reluctant to use her newly acquired Glock pistol at all but she soon overcame her reluctance and started to return fire. Most of her shots went wild and ended up missing her intended targets completely. However it did have the effect of making most of the enemy keep to cover.

As the gunfight continued Abel and Hatsuna continued to stand their ground and managed to take out several more hostiles but more continued to arrive from the doorway. A few more minutes into the fight Abel fired off his the last three rounds he had left in his current magazine at one of the hostile soldiers that was attempting to make his way towards an area where he thought he'd be able to

He loaded his last magazine into his submachine gun and knew that they weren't going to last for very much longer like this. Abel switched his weapon to single shot in an attempt to conserve what little ammo that remained in his weapon. He was about to return fire on the enemy when he heard the rumbling that was made when a car was running. Both Hatsuna and Abel looked in the direction the noise was coming from.

Just a few moments later a grey colored van pulled up nearby the teens and the side door opened up. Inside was the rest of Abel's team, each of whom was clad in full body armor. They all piled out and got behind some of the other nearby parked cars. What really got everyone's attention though was one man of Asian descent with several scars dotting his face and white hair. He had a rather sinister looking smirk on his face as he raised the rocket launcher he was holding from the relative safety of a nearby car and aimed it directly at the attacking forces who were conveniently taking cover from behind a parked van.

A loud "fwoosh" was the only noise that was heard when the rocket was fired. It flew with such speed that the gunmen that were taking cover behind the cars just a few seconds earlier were unable to try and get away in time. The resulting explosion from the rocket destroyed the makeshift cover that the gunmen were using killing almost all of them.

However there were a few remaining hostiles taking cover behind another car and one of them attempted to make a run for it after seeing the firepower that they were packing. Richter noticed that he was in a clear line of fire and saw an opportunity that he would be a fool to not take advantage of "Reznov I want that one alive!" Richter called out.

Reznov gave a curt nod and raised his rifle and aimed it directly at the fleeing soldier's leg and once he was sure that he had the cowardly bitch in his sights, he squeezed the trigger. A bullet flew from the rifle and soared through the air towards the target. In less than a second the man tumbled to the ground as the bullet grazed the man's leg. It didn't do too much damage but he'd have the wind knocked out of him for a few minutes which was more than enough time to finish off the last of the wounded man's colleagues.

"Carver, Kurosawa, bangers out, now!" ordered Richter. Both Carver and Kurosawa immediately did as they were told and tossed a pair of flash bangs where the remaining enemy soldiers were holding up. The flash bangs went off almost instantly, completely blinding the five remaining hostiles, preventing them from putting up anything that amounted to a fight.

Within moments all but one of Hatsuna and Abel's attackers were quickly and efficiently gunned down by a combination of LMG, assault rifle and shotgun fire. The bodies of some of the attackers were covered in bullet holes to the point where they were practically unrecognizable, while those that were caught in the both the rocket and car explosion were now little more than charred body parts.

The last remaining gunman was currently trying to crawl towards the door. However due to his wounds and the fact that the wind had been knocked clean out of him, the man was moving at a snail's pace. Richter signaled for Carver to secure the soon-to-be prisoner.

The team's second assault operator/smartass almost leisurely walked up to the injured man, arc thrower in hand. Once he was a few feet away he roughly kicked the man onto his back. The injured gunman looked at Carver with a worried look given how Carver was smiling rather deviously at him "Nighty night!" he said aiming the arc thrower at the injured man.

"Wha-?" the man started to say but was suddenly hit hard by bolts of electricity. There was a moment of pain for the man, and then, nothing but blackness.

* * *

To be continued.


End file.
